An study of first year higher education students in Chile Werner Westermann

2. María Montessori
(1870-1952)

3. The effectiveness of OER use in
student's logical-mathematical skills:
An study of first year higher education
students in Chile
Update Sub-project 9
Banff, Canada. April 2015

4. Rationale
• OER Adoption looking to assess its
Effectiveness
– Student 1st year performance
• Very low socio-demographic profile
– Very low retention (46%)
– Lack of basic knowledge and academic skills
• No prerequisite to enroll
• Mixed approach
– Quantitative report, March 2015
– Qualitative
• Focus groups with Students / Interview with teachers
• Survey to students

5. Scenarios

6. Treatment
• Comparison of groups:
– randomly assign students to the groups
– same teacher for all groups in each scenario
– alternatives to assure comparison
• Propensity Score Matching: estimation of the
probability of receiving an specific treatment
– mechanism of comparison
• Inverse Probability Weight: matching algorithm
compare results of most similar individuals

7. Treatment
• Result variables: dependent
– Student’s results in the final exam of the
evaluated course
– Student’s grades in the evaluated course
– Percentage of student’s attendance
– Percentage of student’s retention
• Standard deviation

8. Results: Face-to-face scenario

9. Results: Face-to-face scenario

10. Results: e-Learning scenario

11. Conclusions
• students of the face to face classes that used
a semi-open OER obtain significantly better
exam grades than students:
– that did not use any extra resource
– that used an open textbook as an extra resource
• face-to-face students that used semi open
OER have significantly less attendance
levels than other examined students

12. Thanks for your attention!!!
Werner Westermann
wernerwestermannj@gmail.com
wwestermann@bcn.cl